Week 16 (2023)
thrift & splendid uselessness, silence & the happiness of grace, mathematics & literature, emotive & rational skill, Diary Of A Country Priest, mental health identity & wholistic health
(click title to open in browser)
reading: books
Sabbath, Dan B. Allender — audio — Some thoughts.
The Many Assassinations Of Samir, The Seller Of Dreams, Daniel Nayeri — audio — Delightful.
reading: essays, articles, newsletters
Thrift Is The Really Romantic Thing — Grace Babineau, Verily — “G.K. Chesterton described thrift as poetic because it is creative; it challenges us to unite our minds with our daily needs to see our livelihood as a gift to be valued, rather than an expense to be paid.”
A Life Of Splendid Uselessness Is A Life Well Lived — Joseph M Keegini, Psyche — “Our living, to be sure, depends upon an adequate measure of these kinds of things, and of the material goods necessary for maintaining biological life: the schoolchild’s triad of food, clothing and shelter. But to live well, in the last analysis, we need uselessness.”
A fitting essay to come across while reading the book on Sabbath I completed this week.
You Can't Earn Easter — B. D. McClay, Commonweal — “For those American Christians whose faith has been shaped—inevitably—by a reaction to the various feel-good Christianities that abound, the safest thing to do is simply to avoid any occasion of happiness.”
Endangered Habitat: Why The Soul Needs Silence — Stephanie Bennett, Plough — “Silence does the deep work that speech cannot accomplish.”
(related: The Ruthless Elimination Of Hurry)
The Poor You Have Always With You — Joshua Wren, Front Porch Republic — “Accompanying the poor or inhabiting their number, the honest among us recognize our own fundamental impoverishment.”
Finally got to this essay on The Diary Of A Country Priest, finished last week.
Christianity And Poetry — Dana Gioia, First Things — “The Incarnation requires an ode, not an email.”
Treasures Of Darkness — Paul J. Pastor, Ekstasis — “We can hunt our dreams within the rich, damp logs of our lives. We can learn to write and work with intuitive, emotive, and rational skill, moving creatively from the gut through the heart and out the brain.”
The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics And Literature — Sarah Hart, The New York Times — “Just as mathematics makes use of literary metaphors, literature abounds with ideas that a mathematically attuned eye can detect and explore.”
A Broken Model Of Brokenness — Freddie Deboer — “I do think that the endless search for new identity markers to validate people’s status as unique or, worse, to validate their suffering is a road that has no ending… I also think that they fail to understand that suffering itself is not a rare condition, but a universal one, and that attempting to represent theirs as deeper because it supposedly stems from very uncommon conditions will do nothing to make them feel better.”
(related: Gritty Soil, shared previously)
Three Challenges For Talking About Health — Brewer Eberly, Mere Orthodoxy — “There is a crucial difference between your physician recognizing you as a whole person and your physician breaking that wholeness down into discrete parts to be categorized, diagnosed, and treated.”
Fertility Awareness Fights Body Ignorance — Leonora Butau, PhD, Natural Womanhood — “Ignorance of the female body’s design is common amongst women and in society, and sometimes even amongst healthcare professionals.”
(related: FACTS, NaPro Technology, Lumina Health Services, Managing Your Fertility, Guiding Star Project, This Is Your Brain On Birth Control, Taking Charge Of Your Fertility)
watching/listening
Why Is Tsh Catholic? (Part 1) and (Part 2) — A Drink With A Friend — Made me want to read the personal experience of other writers I have loved over the years, including Abigail Favale and Leah Libresco.
*I have Tsh to thank (as well as yet another Catholic, Haley Stewart) for the dozens and dozens of new subscribers recently, after mentioning mine in one of her newsletters!
Continuing On:
Verity with Phylicia Masonheimer — Episodes 69-71 — Sabbath, St. Valentine, and Alcohol.
100 Days Of Dante — Cantos 1-8.
using: product, tip, resource
100 Days of Dante — If you’ve ever wanted to work through Dante’s The Divine Comedy, let this be your guide! I’ve started listening to the short video lectures for each Canto, and they’ve been invaluable.
Other resources for delving into great books with someone to help you along include:
Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson's channel where she’s taught through various books (she helped me through The Brothers Karamazov).
The Close Reads podcast which has many literary deep dives.
Activated Charcoal — Random, but I own and love many of their products! These capsules are great to make your own activated charcoal shampoo (or scrubs) instead of paying the up-charge for pre-made products.
remembering
One Year Ago:
Two Years Ago:
This Week:
I love your newsletters! I’ve never heard that book on the sabbath before. I read Entering God’s Rest by Ken Golden last year; it was a short but helpful look on the Sabbath throughout Scripture!
I love this! Thank you for sharing all these great resources. I am going to have to follow up on a few of these!